Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

It has been a while and of course that streak is going to have to get much longer if the Canucks are to beat very long odds and grab a Western Conference playoff spot.

A 4-2 decision Sunday night over the last-place Buffalo Sabres at Rogers Arena was Vancouver’s second straight win. The Canucks hadn’t put back-to-back wins together since beating a couple of other NHL juggernauts -- Calgary and Edmonton -- on Jan. 18 and 21.

The night was not all good for the Canucks, who lost captain Henrik Sedin with an apparent left leg injury late in the second period. Henrik had been honoured in a pre-game ceremony for recently playing his 1,000th NHL game.

Sunday night’s win moved the Canucks to within three points of eighth-place Phoenix in the Western Conference. The Coyotes have two games in hand and the Canucks also trail ninth-place Dallas by a single point. The Stars have three games in hand on Vancouver.

The Canucks are channeling their inner Jim Carrey -- “so you’re telling me there’s a chance” -- and are not ready to give up on their season.

“This is a start,” said defenceman Kevin Bieksa. “We have been playing good lately but we need the results and we are getting the wins the last couple. This is an important stretch for us. We are not out of it yet. We got some help from Boston of all teams last night (when the Bruins beat the Coyotes) and we’re looking for some more help down the stretch.” The next two games -- on the road Wednesday in Minnesota and Thursday in Colorado -- should tell us if the Canucks do indeed have more than a snowball’s chance of reeling in the two teams ahead of them in the West.

“We couldn’t look by this game, but this back-to-back coming up obviously is a very important time for us when we go on the road and play two pretty good teams,” coach John Tortorella said after the game. “Certainly no disrespect to Buffalo, but they are not as good as those teams we are playing against.

“But we needed to give ourselves a chance to see what we’ve got when we get on the road. You lose this game and you shoot yourself in the foot.”

Early on, it looked like the Canucks were going to lose to the Sabres. They were down 2-0 to the NHL’s lowest-scoring team before the game was four minutes old.

“The way the game started, we make a bad read and they score a goal, Stants (defenceman Ryan Stanton) scores his 10th of the year kicking it in his own net. . . but the guys didn’t panic and we just kept going about our business,” Tortorella said. “It was very important for us to at least give us a chance to see us stand up here when we go on the road.”

“We spotted them two to make it fun and then we kicked it into gear,” said Bieksa.

Henrik Sedin went down with about five minutes left in the second period. He spoke to reporters after the game, perhaps an indication that the injury is not a serious one. Henrik suffered the injury trying to throw a check.

“I’ve got to stop throwing hits,” he said.

Asked whether he will be able to accompany the team on its upcoming road trip, he said: “We’ll see how it is tomorrow.”

Henrik’s injury came just as the Canucks welcomed back winger Daniel Sedin and centre Ryan Kesler from their injuries. In the two previous games the Canucks lost winger Alex Burrows and defenceman Chris Tanev to injuries. It has been that kind of season.

“We can’t use it as an excuse but as I have always said to you guys, I need to be a realist,” Tortorella said. “I have never been in a situation any year I have coached where so many of your top guys have gone down. Not to wish anything bad on our third- and fourth-line guys, but sometimes it would be nice if one of them went down and not our top guys. But it has just been one of those years.”

Tortorella then emphasized that he was joking about the injuries to his bottom six forwards.

It was some of the bottom six guys who rallied the Canucks on Sunday night. Winger Zack Kassian helped set up all four Vancouver goals by Brad Richardson, Shawn Matthias, Yannick Weber and David Booth.

Tyler Ennis and Jamie McBain had given Buffalo a quick 2-0 lead when they scored on two of Buffalo’s ffirst three shots on Vancouver goalie Eddie Lack, who made his 13th straight start.

Kassian’s four-point night was a career-high and his first multi-point game since Jan. 7. He had entered the game with just eight assists in his first 63 games this season.

Sunday’s game marked the start of the 10-game countdown to the end of the regular season for the Canucks. And while it remains a stretch to suggest that countdown is going to end with any kind of liftoff, Bieksa and his teammates are trying to remain optimistic.

“If you look at the other team’s records over the last 10 games, 6-4 is the best record I have seen out of all the teams we are contending with,” Bieksa said. “So if we can get together an 8-2 or 9-1 stretch here, then we’ll be in good shape, I think.”

“That is what I respect about our group, they are still fighting,” Tortorella added. “I know we still have a very steep hill to climb, but they’re still fighting.”

The Sabres scored twice on their first three shots as Tyler Ennis beat Eddie Lack shortside and Jamie McBain slipped one home, off Ryan Stanton, on a delayed penalty to Daniel Sedin. The Canucks pulled even before the first was over on Brad Richardson and Shawn Matthias goals, both set up by sweet Zack Kassian feeds. Yannick Weber, with a softie early in the second, put the Canucks up 3-2 and David Booth iced it in the third on a career-high fourth assist from Kassian.

BY THE NUMBERS

Brad Richardson's first-period snipe ended a 21-game goal drought while David Booth's third-period goal ended a 32-game famine... Daniel Sedin returned to the lineup but his scoring touch didn't. He's now gone 13 games without a point and 23 without a goal... The Canucks threw 79 pucks at Sabres rookie netminder Nathan Lieuwen – 36 reached him, 19 were blocked and 24 missed. The Sabres directed 42 pucks at Eddie Lack, with just 18 reaching him... Both Zack Kassian and Brad Richardson finished plus-4 while Shawn Matthias was plus-3.

HANK HONOURED

Canuck captain Henrik Sedin was feted prior to the opening faceoff for reaching the 1,000 regular-season game plateau. He received a number of gifts, including a silver stick from the team, a silver puck from the trainers, a portrait of himself by artist Tony Harris from his teammates, a $10,000 donation to a charity of his choice from the Canucks For Kids Fund, a Tiffany Crystal from the league and a trip to England's Royal Ascot Racecourse from the Aquilini family and the Canuck organization.

DOWN ON THE FARM

The Utica Comets came from behind Sunday to beat the Milwaukee Admirals 4-3 in a shootout. Alex Grenier, Pascal Pelletier and Brandon DeFazio netted the Comet goals in regulation while Pelletier, DeFazio and David Marshall also scored in the shootout. Netminder Joacim Eriksson picked up the victory to improve his won-loss record to 21-19-2-4. The Comets, meanwhile, are 29-28-3-4 and five points out of a playoff spot in the American League's Westerrn Conference. They have 12 games remaining in their season.

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